NOTHOCALAIS ' COMPOSITE 393 



MALACOTHRIX 



102 NOTHOCALAIS Greene Bull. Cal. Acad, ii, 54. 

 MICROSERIS § NOTHOCALAIS Gray. 



Acaulescent perennial herbs with linear leaves and middle- 

 sized erect heads of yellow flowers. Involucre oblong-campanu- 

 late ; its bracts in two series, narrowly lanceolate, membranace- 

 ous with somewhat thinner hyaline margins, nearly equal. Re- 

 ceptacle flat, alveolate. Achenes fusiform, slipitate, contracted 

 or rostrate-attenuate at summit, 10-costate. Pappus very white 

 and soft, of 10-40 scabrous-margined narrow unequal palese with 

 or without some capillary bristles. 



N. Suksdorfii Greene 1. c. More or less pubescent: scapes 4-10 inches 

 high: leaves linear, attenuate nearly equalling the flowering scapes, all 

 from the crown of a thick perennial root : bracts of the involucre lanceolate, 

 long-attenuate, 6-12 lines long: achenes slender, 5-6 lines long, only half 

 filled by the seed: paleae of the pappus 10-12 nar?ow and nearly equal. 

 Plains of Klickitat Co. Washington and adjacent Oregon. 



N. troximoides Greene 1 c. Microseris troximoides Gray. Scapose 

 stems 6-12 inches high : leaves tufted on the crown of a thick perennial 

 root, rather fleshy, narrowly linear-lanceolate, entire or undulate, 4-6 

 inches long: achenes fusiform, scarcely 4 lines long, its summit merely 

 contracted, nearly filled bv the seed: paleae of the pappus 20-24, lanceolate 

 below, very unequal half -inch long. Plains and hillsides eastern Oregon 

 and Washington to California and Idaho. 



X. cuspidata Greene 1. c. Troximon cuspidatum Pursh. Scapes stout, 

 shorter than or equalling the leaves: leaves linear, long-acuminate, thick, 

 pubescent or glabrate, 4-8 inches long, 2-5 lines T\ide, somewhat condupli- 

 cate, their margins white-tomentose and crisp, or entire : involucre usually 

 qu<te glabrous, nearly 1 inch high : achenes slightly contracted at the sum- 

 mit, about 3 lines long: pappus of 40-50 unequal palese and bristles. Dry 

 soil, Idaho to Ulm- is. 



103 MALACOTHRIX DC. Prodr. vii, 192. 



Leafy-stemmed or sometimes scapose herbs with alternate or 

 all radical leaves and long-peduncled, panicled or solitary, heads 

 of yellow or white flowers that are usually nodding in the bud. 

 Involucre many-flowered, its bracts either imbricated or only 

 calyculate. Receptacle with or without delicate capillary brist- 

 les among the flowers. Achenes not flattened, short-oblong or 

 columnar, glabrous, terete and striately 5-15-costate, or 4-5-an- 

 gled by the prominence of the stronger ribs, slightly if at all 

 narrowed either way with broad truncate apex having an entire 

 or denticulate border or sharp edge. Pappus a series of soft and 

 scabrous, or near the base barbellulate, bristles which are decid- 

 uous more or less in connection, and commonly 1-8 outer and 

 stouter ones which are more persistent and smoother. 



M. glabrata Gray Syn. Fl. i, pt 2, 422. Subcaulescent annual : erect 

 or with ascending branches from the base, these leafy, often again branch- 

 ing and bearing a few lateral as well as terminal long-peduncled heads of 

 yellow flowers : leaves once or twice laciniately pinnatifid into narrow linear 

 or almost filiform lobes : involucre fully half-inch high, glabrous, or the 

 outer bracts sometimes canescent when young: achenes narrow, lightly 



